The Sky is Not Falling
by ShadowKat-Shidobukatsu
Summary: Fili didn't always like Kili, especially not when the boys were barely out of their toddler years.


Fili rushed into the kitchen, hand cradled carefully to his chest, a wide grin on his face. "Mama!" he called, hurrying over to his mother, tugging insistently on her skirts, giggling at the faint flutter of moth wings against the palm of his hand, "Mama, look at what I caught!"

Dis scowled lightly at her youngest son, who was fussing over eating his lunch, spitting it back onto the table every chance he got, and jovially making a right mess out of what he spat out by smearing it all over the front of his clothes. She groaned when Fili ran in, plastering a smile on her face as she turned to see what her elder son was tugging at her skirts for. "What is it, darling?"

"Look!" Fili chirped, carefully opening his hand to show the downy soft orange moth in his hands, the little creature giving a tiny flutter of it's wings in the exposed air, before Fili quickly pulled it back into his body so it wouldn't escape, grinning widely up at his mother. "Isn't it pretty? It took me forever to catch it, but it's the brightest of oranges I've ever seen, and-"

Dis smiled indulgently at Fili, patting him on the head lightly, cutting off his sentence. "It's very lovely, Fili, dear, really, but I'm a bit busy-KILI," Dis shrieked, startling the blonde prince into stumbling backwards a bit as Dis turned to glare at her youngest, who was giggling madly after having thrown a fist full of food into his mother's hair.

Fili watched his mother in startled silence for a moment, before Dis let out a low breath, waving at Fili in mildly dismissive manner. "I'm a bit busy with your brother right now, love, if you could go play outside."

The little prince sighed quietly, shuffling back outside and letting his prize go, watching it flutter off in a gust of wind, scowling slightly.

~

"KILI," Fili cried, rushing forward towards his brother, ripping the tiny wooden toy out of the toddlers mouth, face screwing up in rage. "This was my favorite, and you broke it!"

Kili's large brown eyes stared up at his brother in fear, before tears welled and he began wailing, causing Fili to jerk back, fighting the urge to hide when he heard heavy foot falls coming up the stairs to the room he shared with his little brother.

"What's going on up here?" Dis asked, frowning as she surveyed the room.

"Kili broke my favorite soldier toy that Uncle Thorin brought home for me," Fili explained, holding up the broken and chewed upon wooden figure.

"You let your brother chew on that?" was Dis' first reaction, hurrying over to Kili, forcing him to open his mouth so she could check to make sure he hadn't gotten any splinters stuck in his gums.

Fili huffed, folding his arms over his chest. "Of course not! He picked it up and started gnawing on it like a little barbarian!"

"Well then, what was it doing on the floor? I told you to keep your toys picked up!" Dis snapped, picking up a still whimpering Kili, bouncing him lightly on her hip.

"I was in the middle of doing that!" Fili cried, stomping his foot on the floor, glaring at his mother, "I've told Kili not to touch my things, though, and he just won't stop being a little prat and breaking all of my stuff!"

Dis shot her elder son a sharp glare, causing Fili to back up a step. "You do not call your brother names. He's smaller and younger than you, Fili. He doesn't understand everything you tell him yet. You should keep a better eye on your things, and keep your room clean, and you wouldn't be having problems like that." With that, Dis walked out of the room, cooing and hushing a still sniffling Kili.

Fili stared after his mother, frustrated tears welling up in his eyes as he forcefully threw his destroyed toy on the floor, before slamming his bedroom door shut and throwing himself onto his bed.

~

"Uncle Thorin!"

Fili grinned happily as Thorin finished pulling his boots off, after having given Dis a quick hug. He returned Fili's grin with a small smile of his own, patting his knee in invitation, causing the little blonde to laugh and clamor up onto his uncle's lap.

"How was work? Did you make lots of swords? Did you get into any fights?! Did you make lots of money? Did Mister Dwalin get anymore tattoos? Oh! Did you get any tattoos? Did you-"

"Hush now, Fili," Thorin said with a chuckle, gently ruffling his nephews hair, "There will be plenty of time for stories later, I promise."

The young prince sighed, shifting to hug his uncle tightly, rubbing his face into the rough material of his tunic. "Okay," he grumbled into the fabric, allowing Thorin to place him back onto the floor.

"Ah, and there's the little one," Thorin hummed once Fili was settled back on his feet, Dis smiling as she handed Kili over to their uncle, the tiny brunette staring at his uncle in mild wonder. "How have you been, hmm? Being treated well, I hope," he teased, smirking at Dis, who rolled her eyes in amusement.

Fili sighed as his mother and uncle began to chat, Thorin absently bouncing Kili on his knee all the while, the blonde feeling all but forgotten for the time being. He huffed out a breath and headed outside.

~

"Fili! Fili! Wait!"

Fili groaned as he shot a glare at his younger brother over his shoulder, folding his arms over his chest as he turned a pleading look at his mother, who simply returned his glare with one of her own.

"Play nice, boys," Dis called from their front door, before closing it with a soft click. Which meant that Fili was responsible for his brother for the afternoon. The blonde groaned again at the realization kicking a rock across their yard.

"What're we gon' do today?" Kili asked excitedly, and out of breath from his short jog to catch up.

Fili scrunched up his nose, looking his baby brother over. He was yet too small and soft for them to go play with the other boys of their village, since they'd undoubtedly want to wrestle or play fight, and the last thing he needed was for their mother to punish him for letting Kili get hurt. They also couldn't go down to the river to fish, because Kili couldn't swim yet, and if he got too close to the water (which he would, as he always did) he might fall in, and Fili didn't even want to think about the consequences of that. They couldn't go visit their uncle at the forges (it was too hot and dangerous), nor could they go see Mister Dwalin (he was busy with weapons training). They couldn't even stay home, now, because their mother obviously wanted them out for the day.

"Exploring, I guess," the young prince finally settled on, nodding towards the substantial grove of trees not too far from the edge of town.

"Exploring!" Kili exclaimed excitedly, bouncing on his heels as he walked next to his brother, "That sounds like fun!"

"Yeah," Fili grumbled. If he hadn't already explored every inch of the grove that he was allowed to venture to.

The brothers wandered through the trees, Kili showing off little insects or pretty stones he found to his brother, rushing ahead and exclaiming happily every time he saw something new. Fili simply followed at a sedate pace, scowling to himself, tired of having to cater to his brother and watch after him, and be responsible all the time. It wasn't fair. Kili got to do whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted, and Fili was the one to always get in trouble.

"Fili?" Kili's voice came from the other side of a tree, sounding worried, and perhaps a bit scared.

The blonde rounded the tree to find his brother with his foot caught between a couple of thick tree roots, tears welled in the younger's eyes, looking frightened.

"It hurts," Kili murmured, biting his lower lip.

Fili threw his arms into the air, looking up to the canopy of branches and leaves over them, letting out a frustrated noise, before stomping over to his brother to help get his foot free.

"I'm sorry," Kili muttered, ducking his head and wincing as Fili wiggled his foot a little to see how he could pull it free, "I didn't mean to…"

"You never mean to do anything," Fili snapped without thinking, letting out a quiet sigh as he tried to calm down, even as fat tears began to roll down Kili's cheeks.

"I'm sorry," the younger reiterated swallowing thickly as he tried to keep from sobbing outright at the ache in his ankle as Fili gave it an experimental yank, "I-I'm sorry."

"Stop saying that, I get it," Fili grumbled, sitting back a little to scowl at Kili's foot, tilting his head a bit as he tried to determine if he could break one of the roots to get Kili's foot free.

"You don't, though!" Kili wailed, gasping loudly in pain when Fili pulled out a small knife and began to hack at the roots.

"I didn't even touch you with the blade!" Fili snapped, glaring at his younger brother, who was trying in vain to withhold any more noises of discomfort.

"Th-the, uhm, when you hit it, it makes my ankle hurt," the brunette sniffed, wiping at is nose with the sleeve of his tunic.

Fili huffed, taking mind to be more careful as he worked to free his brother. After a time, he murmured quietly, "What do you mean, I don't get that you're sorry?"

The younger of the two whimpered as his foot shifted between the roots, his ankle throbbing uncomfortably. "I, uhm, well," he hiccuped quietly, "I don't mean to-to annoy you. I don't. You're just…really cool, and I just want to make you proud, and I keep messing up, and I just…I know I'm not a good little brother to have. I'm not strong, or swift, and I'm still too little to help with anything. So, I'm sorry."

Fili paused, looking up at the face of his little brother, who was staring at his foot, gaze blank as he sniffed back tears. The blonde felt something weird wrench in his chest at that look on Kili's face, making him regret every hateful thing he had ever spouted at the younger. He sighed and continued to chip away at the root, letting out a quiet noise of triumph as he finally made enough space to wiggle Kili's foot free.

Once his foot was free, Kili shifted to fold his legs and pull his boot off, both brothers wincing at the angry red and mottled purple the brunette's flesh had become, his ankle already starting to swell. "Sorry," the brunette whispered again, ducking his head, knowing full well that Fili would be blamed for his injury.

Finally, the blonde sighed and tugged Kili into a hug, hating himself a little for making his brother feel useless, even if he sometimes felt like he was. "Stop," he murmured into the other's hair. "It's true that sometimes I just want to sit on you so you can't get up and do something stupid," this caused Kili to squirm and try to pull away, "But-Hey, wait! But that doesn't mean I don't love you. I should be the one who's sorry. I'm supposed to be your big brother, and show you cool stuff and protect you, and all that stuff, but I haven't. You can't help but be annoying, 'cause it's your job, but I'm supposed to be able to look past that, and I haven't. I've only been focused on the stupid stunts you pull, when I should be helping you pull stupid stunts so neither of us get in trouble."

Kili finally managed to slip from Fili's grin, staring at his brother in disbelief, a tiny smile on his lips. "Really?"

The blonde chuckled, yanking on a messy lock of Kili's hair. "Yeah. C'mon. We should get you home so Mum can look at your foot."

"Ugh, I think it's broken," Kili grumbled as Fili helped him up and they started on their way back home.

"It's not broken," Fili scoffed, rolling his eyes as he took some of his brother's weight as they walked, "It's probably just bruised or sprained. Don't be such a baby."

Kili snorted, hip chucking his brother, which really only resulted in his own downfall, as Fili stumbled and Kili yelped in pain when he put too much pressure on his ankle.

"Really? Really."

Kili laughed, shrugging a bit as they hobbled out of the woods together.


End file.
